Diet and OA

[JuliaJ]

Hello - New here . Has anyone with Osteoarthritis any tips on reducing inflammation with diet , please. From personal experience preferably. Thanks, Julia .

[Cooper27 Administrator]

It could be worth looking into the auto-immune Paleo diet, which is a short term diet intended to help you identify trigger foods that could be worsening your symptoms. Most people find cutting out gluten is a good place to start

[andyswarbs]

I developed Psoriatic Arthropathy in 1976 which was misdiagnosed initialy as Osteoarthritis. Not that the misdiagnosis matters because whatever my joints were damaged an I was then told at the age of 23 that I had the joints of a 55 year old. I am now 66 and fighting to keep my joints as healthy as possible is a daily battle. That battle was made worse in 2015 when RA set in and put me rapidly in a wheelchair.

With a range of drugs not working I looked to alternative solutions. Late 2015 I watched the film Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead which is available on YouTube. That inspired me to think diet might help in some way, however my attempts at juicing (which is a main focus of the film) helped a little bit but not a lot.

Early 2016 I found the Paddison Program which advocates a whole food plant based diet without oils. I am convinced that had I just adopted a WFPB diet without oils my recovery would not be what it is today. My recovery has been the hardest challenge, bar none, I have ever faced. The road to recovery is like walking a precipise. Fall off either way a little bit and it is easy to become disillusioned. This is why so many people fail using dietary changes. I was in such a dark place late Summer 2016, after almost six months of steady recovery my own halted. I had to look very deep at what I was doing. I found that I had swallowed the notion that oils, esp extra-virgin olive oil might be beneficial and added some small oils back into my diet. From the moment I stopped the oils my recovery continued apace.

By January 2017 my C-reactive Protien was down to normal (now it is insignificant and unmeasurable). My recovery continues to this day. My contunued recovery is a story of sticking with and refining my dietary lifestyle as well as almost daily hard cardio exercise in the form of Bikram Hot Yoga.

Having been unable to walk and in a wheelchair my quads had all but evaporated. I could not raise my arms up to my shoulders. But the Paddison Program argues that recovery is 60% diet and 40% exercise, with the strongly recommended exercise being Bikram Yoga. Fortunately I have one a drive away in Oxford.

When I first started the exercise regime back in October 2016 I was provided a stool to sit upon and two people hoisted me to the floor for the floor exercises, and then two people again lifted me back up again at the end of class. Four months later I was able, for the first time, to be able to get myself up and down from the floor unaided. It did take me a few minutes, but I did it.

I can now walk at pace carrying loads. I cannot run, but walking will do for me. I no longer take arthritic medication. I live a life largely pain free. The only pain is in my right elbow, this is work in progress.

Fortunately I have not had any operations, so my life's goal is to keep my joints, such as they are, in tip top condition. For that Bikram Yoga is fabulous and I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone with arthritis.

A final word about diet. I think that a whole foods plant based diet, without refined oils, is awesome. It is a rich, diverse & satisfying way of eating. It is incredibly health promoting with no downsides. (By contrast Auto-Immune Protocol, being meat-based, carries a risk of heart problems in future years). Unlooked for health improvements since I started on the lifestyle I have not had a cold, Also my many years of bleeding gums has come to an end, oh and I lost around 20kg and have been solidly at my BMI for the first and only time in my life.

There are a stead stream of people who have gone down my route, check out the youtube videos for Paddison Program with my story there as at January 2017. Also you can find Katy Hoogendam from Oregon who has been in crutches or hospital for most of her 27 years of life, having contracted juvenile RA, JIA/JRA. She has followed the same scheme as myself and is has just been accepted for the USA Yoga Championships.

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to andyswarbs]

I'm glad to read of your recovery, and hope your health continues to stay good.

Just to clarify though, the Auto-immune protocol is a short term diet, that is intended to last only 6-12 weeks, before the person reintroduces foods to search for triggers. It's intended as a whole food, plant based diet that includes meat, as opposed to being a meat focused diet. Some do follow it while maintaining a vegetarian diet, although I do think it would be hard to do while maintaining a vegan diet

[JuliaJ in reply to Cooper27]

Thank you for this. I did Atkins for a few months - lost weight and felt very fit, but was worried about the amount of protein I was putting away. The Paleo sounds like a modified Atkins ? I might give it a go for the six week period.

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to JuliaJ]

My understanding of the Atkins diet, is that it's pretty much 90% meat and eggs, and maybe includes some vegetables? I've never really looked much into it, because it didn't come across as particularly balanced.

My understanding of the AIP diet is that the majority of your plate should be filled with vegetables, because you want to load the body with as wide a variety of nutrients as possible (to promote gut health). As an example day, I would eat a sweet potato scone for breakfast, soup for lunch, and maybe a chicken stir fry (with spiralised veg noodles) for dinner, and I would snack on fruit, coconut, carrot sticks and olives.

The diet does ask you to cut out nightshades (potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes) - I ended up keeping them in though, because I love them too much - I tried to limit them to once a week.

[Hidden in reply to andyswarbs]

I think it's great that your there for new members to tell your story.

Sadly though you destroy any positive thoughts that a ultra version of a vegan diet might have when you try to rubbish off a perfectly normal healthy diet..

[andyswarbs in reply to Hidden]

I dispute that a diet that is meat heavy is at all healthy. The atkins family tried to suppress the reason for his death. His autopsy supports the notion that meat was a significant factor in his death. Thus the rebranding as paleo.

Show me just one piece of peer reviewed research showing meat consumption reverses heart disease.

Btw I have a family friend who did atkins. Yes he lost weight but now he not only has put it all and more back on again but has other health complications as well. Of course that's an anecdote.

[Hidden in reply to andyswarbs]

Hey, who taking about meat heavy plates of food ?

What is Atkins ?

What I said was, a normal healthy diet.

If you enjoy your extremely ultra version of a vegan diet, then just get on with it.

Life is to be loved and enjoyed to the fullest.

Am just enjoying some cold roasted chicken with salad cream dip.

Don't worry about what other people eat, be happy, like me.

[benwl in reply to Hidden]

This is the healthy eating forum, for people who want to discuss aspects of healthy eating. And part of that is going to include discussion of what constitutes a healthy diet and why.

I'm curious though as to why you seem so bothered by vegans. If you really are so happy with your "normal healthy diet" why the angry posts?

[Hidden in reply to benwl]

Hey, am curious on why you say am bothered about vegans.

If you are reading anger in something, I think you should look within yourself.

This is only a forum where people talk about things of interest.

I am interested in vegan diets.

Is it really more healthy or just saying that it is because they have some problems with eating disorders.

Genuinely curious.

Been happy with my own diet dosen't make me any less curious then if I was not happy with my diet.

Enjoy your life and don't worry about what other people eat.

[JAS9 in reply to Hidden]

OK, great!

Just so we don't waste anyone's time, can you tell me what aspect of a plant-based diet you are most interested in? For example, some people love that it helps to reduce the environmental stress on our planet by using much less water and land, while also cutting down on greenhouse gasses. Others really like the fact that animal cruelty is lessened by their choice of diet. Or are you interested in the many fantastic health benefits of a plant-based diet, including: reversing type 2 diabetes; helping to fix autoimmune diseases; unclogging the arteries to your heart, brain, and lower back? Finally (and one of my favorite topics) would you like to see some really delicious recipes that blow animal-based food out of the water?

Let me know, please. In the meantime, here's one of my favorite videos. No gross pictures, just a talk by a fantastic, awakened doctor, Michael Klaper MD.

[Hidden in reply to JAS9]

I sometimes do waste time , but then I spend more time working out why I think I wasted time, and that is time well spent.

[JuliaJ in reply to andyswarbs]

Thank you so much for your response , I’m intrigued to hear about the oilfree approach and its transformative effect on your health . Very best wishes.